Science

Museum scientists study the history, evolution, and diversity of the universe, the Earth, and its inhabitants. We make new discoveries and share them with our communities through presentation, publication, and programming.

The Museum is home to the last grizzly that lived in Colorado, the world's largest rhodochrosite crystal discovered in a silver mine near Alma, a Triceratops skull unearthed by construction crews digging a basement in Brighton, and more than 1.4 million other irreplaceable artifacts.

In October 2010, a bulldozer operator working near a Colorado ski area uncovered the tusk of a young female mammoth. Over the next 10 months, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science conducted its largest-ever fossil excavation, yielding a treasure trove of well-preserved Ice Age fossils. Museum crews uncovered 5,000 bones of 41 kinds of Ice Age animals, including mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, camels, deer, horses, and giant bison. The preserved series of Ice Age fossil ecosystems is one of the most significant fossil discoveries ever made in Colorado. This discovery at Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village will change forever our understanding of alpine life in the Ice Age.